Amjad Al-Jawhary has paid a high price for his efforts to organize workers in Iraq. In 1995, Amjad had to flee Iraq and the regime of Saddam Hussein, because of his union organizing work. He took up residence in Toronto Canada, but Amjad stays in close contact with his comrades in Iraq. He travels there frequently, and acts as one of the few voices in the west for the for the Iraqi labor movement.

I aired an interview with Amjad on the Labor Express radio program in June 2005, as the representative of the Federation of Workers Councils and Unions of Iraq (FWCUI) and the Union of the Unemployed in Iraq (UUI). He talked on that program about his many years of struggle - first against the Bathh regime, and than against the U.S. occupation forces - to establish a secular, progressive, democratic nation. Since 2005, the Iraq Freedom Congress (IFC), which includes the aforementioned groups, and many other unions, women’s organizations and student groups, has taken up the leadership of this struggle against religious fundamentalism, ethnic sectarianism and the devastating U.S. military occupation.

The IFC states their mission quite clearly in their founding statement…

“IFC has been formed to encounter the civil abyss in Iraq. Presently, the fabric of the civil society in Iraq has been torn apart under the US occupation and the domination of the Islamic, tribal and political gangsters. People of Iraq have been caught between the two poles of world terrorism of our time- the US state terrorism and the political Islam – forcing their mental and physical well-being to the verge of destruction.”

I interviewed Amjad once again yesterday – this time in the wake of yet another attack on the IFC by U.S. occupation forces. Amjad is now also the IFC’s representative in North America. The interview will air in two parts. The first will be broadcast on tonight’s episode of Labor Express Radio. The second will be aired next week. But you can hear the full, largely unedited version of the interview right here…

http://www.archive.org/details/AmjadAl-Jawhary1

In a time of war like now, it is incumbent on workers in the aggressor nation, to reach out in solidarity to the workers of the nation under attack. Workers solidarity is our own defense against the aggressive impulses of the ruling class of all nations. It is our only hope for a peaceful world. Please support the working people of Iraq and perhaps together we can under this brutal farce perpetrated against both our peoples…

http://www.ifcongress.com/English/

http://www.no-ifs.org/


This audio is part of the collection: Labor Express Radio
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Artist/Composer: Jerry Mead-Lucero
Keywords: Iraq

Creative Commons license: Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 United States

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